A Kharagpur school student was allegedly shot when he handled an illegal pistol kept at his friend’s home, police said, overturning the initial account of an attack by a criminal gang. The student, identified as ninth-grade railway school pupil Akshay Kumar Jha, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kolkata.
The Kharagpur Town Police investigation has led to the arrest of Akshay’s friend Sagar Kumar, 23, and two others, Kola Yogeshwar Rao, 23, and Bishal Jana, 22. Police have accused them of attempting to destroy evidence, illegally possessing a firearm and concealing information about the incident. All three arrested men are residents of the Old Settlement area in Ward 20 of Kharagpur municipality.
According to the police account cited in the report, Akshay went to Sagar’s home in the Gol Bazar area on Wednesday morning. Sagar reportedly went to the toilet while a nine-millimetre pistol kept inside the house came to Akshay’s attention. Police said the student handled the weapon out of curiosity, causing a round to discharge and enter the area near his throat.
The incident was reported to police at about 11 am. After the shooting, Sagar allegedly contacted a friend, who reached the house with two other people. They took Akshay to Kharagpur Railway Main Hospital and allegedly created a false account that an unidentified criminal group had fired at him. Police detained Sagar during the investigation after finding inconsistencies in his statements, the report said.
A search of Sagar’s house resulted in the recovery of the pistol and three live cartridges, police said. Officers also recovered two empty cartridge cases and a blood-stained shirt believed to belong to Akshay. The seized items have been sent for forensic examination. The police investigation is continuing.
Police said the weapon belonged to Sagar’s father, Venkat Prasad Rao, and had remained at the house after his death. The firearm was allegedly unlicensed. The recovery has shifted the case from a suspected street shooting to an investigation into illegal firearm storage inside a residential setting and the actions allegedly taken after the student was injured.
The three accused were produced before the Kharagpur ACJM court on Thursday. The court ordered 10 days of police custody, according to the report. Kharagpur Superintendent of Police Papiya Sultana said there was no gang war or criminal group attack in the student’s shooting. She said the police would search the homes of mafia groups in the city and recover illegal weapons, adding that a return to Kharagpur’s earlier period of mafia violence would not be allowed.
